June 26, 2007

It seems like ages since I’ve made a journal entry. We have been struck by some bad luck. First, we got a faulty batch of extension tubes for Nitara’s tube. Within a few days they start to leak and then totally come off. That is why we “fed the bed” in Kodai. The next one started to leak and flooded her feeding pump inside its bag. Now the pump is fried, and Nitara really, really needs that pump to get her full feedings day and night. So now we are hand-feeding her but she’s not getting all her calories. Luckily she has enough extra padding on her to not have her health threatened. And she is very good about staying hydrated when she’s well.

Yesterday she agreed to getting her ears pierced! Yeah! The man at the jewelry shop put some very strong painkiller on her ear lobes and she only flinched with the gun. She later said it didn’t hurt at all, and they don’t seem to be bothering her now. She is very proud of them. I’m so glad we let her choose to get it done, and I’m even more glad that we did it in a humane way. In the states they don’t put any painkiller on at all from what I remember. The jewelry shop is something that is out of this world. I never cease to be amazed when I enter that place. The jeweled necklaces are like what you would find on the Queen of England for an official function. I cannot even begin to describe them all. There was one set that had over one hundred medium sized white diamonds surrounding several yellowish diamonds. It had a matching pair of earrings, too. Now imagine that set times about 200 and you get an idea. Next door to the gold shop was the silver shop. There were many large pieces of pure silver for display. There was a silver basin big enough for Nitara to take a bath in. There were also some silver puja lamps that were taller than Abi.

Today I woke up with fever and chills, bad body aches, dizziness, and a horrible headache. With the monsoon season starting right on schedule we have mosquitoes. I hope it’s not Malaria or worse, a new mosquitoe-borne illness called African Chicken something-or-other. Time will tell, and at least we have access to meds. Nitara has it too, whatever it is, and is just lying in the fetal position on the sofa. By tonight if this gets worse we will seek out a doctor just to make sure we catch it in the early stages.

June 28, 2007

Nitara spiked a fever of almost 106, and I was not far behind at 103. At that point a lab tech was called to the house to take a blood sample from me. The most concerning thing about Nitara was that she had not kept down any fluids for more than 12 hours and was getting dehydrated. After a tepid shower her fever came down but still not able to hold down any fluids at all. I decided to take her to ER just like at home. It was irresponsible of V and I to not have a game plan if she got sick before this happened. As is the usual method in this home it took 45 minutes to decide what to do, including phone calls to friends of friends for their input. There are some hospitals that are good but they are charity hospitals and reportedly not very clean. We settled on going to see a top pediatric GI/general ped who got us right in. The office was very nice and clean and he was friendly and even knew what EE was. I was feeling like I had one foot in the grave myself but I needed to provide her history. She was given a shot of an anti-nausea med and we were told that if she was not able to hold down fluids by midnight, to take her to a certain hospital that is cleaner and nicer. The fee for his services was only 700 rupees (less than $20). At home her usual GI visit is somewhere between $200-400. She was prescribed an antibiotic because he felt she had a virus with secondary bacterial infection of the gut. Also an anti-nausea med and one for fever. The total bill for all three meds was 250 rupees, about $5. Then my malaria test came back negative, thank goodness. A print-out of the results was delivered to the door and the total cost for the whole service was around $5.

It was interesting to see how the medical system here works, and it’s also interesting to see how little they charge for services and meds. Kamini’s endoscopy was only around $150 while mine was close to $5000 (covered by insurance). Most people here do not have medical insurance. It’s costly and not worth it for most situations. If you are poor you go to a charity hospital (if they have room for you, otherwise too bad) and if you are wealthy you can afford to pay cash.

There are things I can buy over the counter here that are prescription only in the US. For example Kamini bought Domperidone for everyone for the Kodai trip up and down the mountain. The baby’s oral suspension med was just 10 rupees (25 cents). You can also buy birth control pills very cheap here over the counter. I have what I think is a very, very bad sinus infection now that my fever is gone. I have awful shooting pains on one whole side of my face, especially behind one eye to the point that it’s watering and I’m bedridden. Kamini bought me some antibiotics, a full five-day course, for about 50 cents. I normally would not jump to take antibiotics but with us flying home soon, I don’t want to take any chances. What is interesting is that when I tried to get some liquid baby Motrin for Nitara yesterday I was told it was prescription only for kids.

Abi visited the orphanage yesterday and came home telling me all about it. I am so sorry I missed it. She said the girls slept upstairs and the boys slept downstairs, and they used regular beds and not bunk beds. Four women took care of all the children. She said they ate a good dinner. Also she said they all spoke English.

Last night there was a very big storm. I was kinda out of it, but I think I heard on BBC that there was a typhoon that hit south India and a lot of people drowned. The monsoon season means that it rains quite a bit and it’s been difficult to wash clothes. I have found myself running to the roof terrace to pull down half-dried clothes and transfer them to drying racks indoors instead. When you are washing clothes for eight people in the household, including a baby in cloth diapers, the drying racks are always full and we are always a little behind on the laundry.

Update: starting to feel much better with the sinus pain! Yeah! Hope I can make a full recovery by the time we fly. Nitara is still feeling “vomity” and not tolerating much more than Pedialyte and pureed potatoes. Still running a fever, too. Poor kid. We are leaving in 2 days. I'm kinda relieved actually. Things stopped being fun when her pump broke. Never knew how much we depended on it until it was not there anymore.

There are some photos of the orphanage at http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa115/abiramineha/India%202/
in the India 2 album. These were taken by my sister in law. It's hard for me to imagine not having any family at all. Poor kids.